A no man’s, deserted belt located in a restricted military area. (Express photo)A no man’s, deserted belt located in a restricted military area, which displays a board saying ‘trespassers will be prosecuted’ has been chosen as the site to put up sculptures made from scrap, costing taxpayers a whopping Rs 1.5 crore. Ironically, the civic body says that “huge tourist footfall” is the reason for choosing the site in question.
According to the details, scrap would be used to make sculptures in the stretch of green belt across thirteen government houses in Sector 31, which falls in an area where the general public is not allowed.
A few firms as well as individuals, over ten in number, have expressed their interest in the tender floated for this project.
Though the agenda was passed in the General House a few months ago as the ‘toolkit of Swacch Survekshan 2022-23 requires one park has to be developed as waste to wonder park’, The Indian Express found that the site is a green belt maintained by the Municipal Corporation in a restricted military area.
Area councillor from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Anju Katyal, when asked about details of the tender, said, she would share them soon.
However, it has been a week and Katyal has not shared the same. She did not respond to the other queries about the project either.
Those who applied to be part of the project, according to the tender, include an electronics firm Megastar Electronics, MS Group, a construction firm Neelkanth Construction, a Zirakpur-based contractor JP Singla Engineers and Contractors, Pradeep Kumar, Prastuti/ Shyamal Kumar Pahari, Soul Terracotta Unit, Waste to Art Private Limited and Z Tech India Private Limited.
When contacted, Municipal Commissioner Anindita Mitra, said, “the area of the park and the footfall” are the reasons behind choosing the site. When asked about the footfall particularly, she said, “Japanese Garden is very close by, which attracts a huge number of tourists. This will attract people to the neighbourhood park as well”.
It is pertinent to mention here that the Japanese Garden is located on the main road and is not out of access to the general public while the park in question is in a restricted military area, prohibited from public
access.
What the agenda said
The agenda that was put forth in the House stated, “A proposal has been framed for providing and fixing of sculptures of different kinds made up of scrap landscaping work and cement concrete walking pathway in front of house nos. 3315 to 3328, Sector 31, Chandigarh.
Further, it is stated that as per scheme of marking in toolkit for Swachh Survekshan 2022-23, at least one park to be developed as waste to wonder park and picture uploaded on the swachhata portal (IEC module). Therefore, the park has been visited by the executive engineer along with SDE and JE for above said proposal.”
Needs vigilance enquiry, says activist
Activist RK Garg said, “The proposal itself shows lack of financial prudence on the part of MC and requires a vigilance inquiry to find out who is being benefited by such planned siphoning of public funds. We demand that before spending over Rs 50 lakh on a project that should be vetted by a committee of experts. Moreover, when we have a world famous tourist place, Rock Garden, to utilise scrap and waste material, why spend such a huge amount at an obscure place where the public cannot even go?”